375 

S64 
opv 1 



F 375 
.S64 

Copy 1 

..■.wi UiVU 



JLIIK FOR HIE 



I Loyi 



POJS^'ING or THE DEMOCRATIC AND REPUBLICAN ACCOUNTS. 

Sjcecl of HON. H." BOARDMAN SMITH, of Net M... 

•-a 
In tbo House of Rcprcscutatlvcs, June 8, 1872, ou the Coudition of Affairs in Louisiana. 



Mr. SMITH, of New York. Mr, gpeaher, 
the people of this coan<ry have sufferfed too 
mnch in SRving and guarding thftir liberties to 
pat up farther wiih tricks and shame. Hon»st 
ihemefilves, they damand that politicians 
shall deal Fqaaroly with them. It were wise, 
too, for politicians to bear in mind that they 
are intelligent, and are just now in no hamor 
for fooling. 

I have not sought the floor, Mr, Sijeaker, 
to defend bad men in Louisiana. The Ke- 
publican party, born of the conscience of this 
tsoixntry, with a muscle made hard in the 
struggle with gi;int wrong, with a career al- 
ways glorious and si ways triumphant be- 
cause always just, has no use for white- wash. 
That is a good thing lor sepulchres, but for a 
live and giant party, it is too cheap for glory 
and too thin for strength. 

Mr. Speaker, if with the convictions of my 
conscience I should deny that Louisiana has 
Boffered from adventurers and villains in of- 
ficial position, I should be pnilty of a derelic- 
tion of duly to this House as a member of 
your committee, and of gross infidelity to the 
liepublioan party. That party, sir, like 
Brutus, is just enough and strong enough to 
condemn its first-born to death. I shall 
not assert that the Governor of Louisiana is 
alone responsible for the troubles in that 
State, nor deny that he was elected by Re- 
publican votes. But I do assert that from 
about the commencement of his ofiicial term 
he has been gayly coquetting with the Demo- 
cratic party, and that Barkis has been amaz- 
ingly "willin*," that he has appointed more 
Democrats than Republicans to office, and 
that with his first official miscoaduot, the Re- 
publican party of Louisiana, ("except such 
men as he held by personal favor and patron- 
age,) led by pure, noble, and heroic men array- 
ed itself in solid and determined opposition 
to him. And, Mr. Speaker, this load of shame 
would not have been bud upon Louisiana but 
for the fact that the virtuous and white-robed 
Democracy of the State at the critical mom»nt 
rushed to his support and formed with him in 
January, 1871, an infamous coalition which 
held the Republican party in the Leg- 
islature in complete subjection, and brought 
Louisiana to the depth of humiliation to 
which she has been plunged. 

Mr. Speaker, let the wailing report of the 
Democratic members of this committee go to 
the ear of the country. I will not stop to 
pay the picture is overdrawn, but I invite' 
these gentlemen to come to the counter and 
post the books, that the country may decide 
who shall bear the infamy. 

The Democratic Legislature of Loaisiana of 
186G, to which was returned but one Union 
man, like every Democratic Legislature in 
the Union, contemptuously rejected the fonr- 
teenth amendment," which, bear in mind, did 



not impose negro 8nCfrage,but made the freed- 
men citizens, and abolished the three-fifths 
representation in Congre&s. Feeling "piiy 
and kindness" for the freedmcu, as Democratic 
wis-nesses testified before your ccmuiittee, the 
same Legislaluro expelled the Union mem- 
ber, who offered a resolution that the United 
States fl»g should be hung over the Speflk^r's 
chair, and passed, among others, the follow- 
ing laws : 

"An act to provide for and regulate labor 
contracts for agricultural pursuits, which re- 
quired the freadmen 'within the first ten dnys 
of the month of January of each year,' to 
make contracts for labor for a whole yeur be- 
fore a justice of the peace and two diaintor • 
ested witnesses,' the heads of families to 
make contracts for all the members of the 
family able to wors ; the ninth section of 
which act provided lor a common fund,' into 
which all furids were to go, to be divided 
among the laborers, and by which cert^.'Iu 
acts of the laborers are declared to be diso- 
bedience,' Judgments under this section 
were to be entered by the employer, but, if 
not satisfactory to the freedmen, 'an appeal 
may be had to the nearest j ustioe of tiie peace 
and two freeholders, citizens, one of said 
citizens to be selected by the employer and 
the other by the laborer. ' 

"Also, an act to prohibit the carrying of 
fire arms on premises or plantations of any 
citizen without the consent of the owner. 

"Also, an act to prevent trespassing, which 
seems to be intended to prevent freedmen 
from leaving the plantations oh which they 
were employed and from visiting each other. 

"Also, an act making an important change 
in the vagrant law of Louisiana, allowing a 
justice of the peace, it would seem, by de- , 
manding any sort of a bond for good behavior 
in such an amount and with such sureties as 
he may choose, which it would ba impossible 
for the freedmen to procure, to 'hire out' the 
letter for one year to a planter, or to cause 
him to labor on the pnbUo works, roads, and 
levees. ' 

"Also, an act to provide for the punishment 
of persons for tampering with, persuading, 
or enticing away, harboring, feediug, or se- 
creting laborers, servants, or apprentices, 
very stringent in its provisions. 

"Also, an act relative to apprentices and 
indentured servants, authorizmg parish offi- 
cers to apprentice 'all persons under the age 
of eighteen years if females, and twenty-one 
years if males,' under the conditions stated. 
In all cases when the age of the minor cannot ^ 
be ascertained by 'record testimony,' th«s>'^£i«r 
cer 'shall fix the age accord'" ^ )" 
idence before him.' -iwdly.-*"-"" 

"The 8ec(md ' 
bindinp' ' 
O' ' 



2 



"Also, an act to punish in certain cases the 
employers of laborers or apprentices, inten- 
ded, it would seera, to revive the old slavery 
regulation that colored persons should carry 
'written certificates' or 'passes.' " 

Here, sir, was the nest-egg of a new "irre- 
pressible cocflitjt," and of new wars for our 
children to fight out. 

More than a year before had the prophetic 
Lincoln suggested the giving of the right of 
sutfrage to the blacks of Louisiana, as in 
some hour of danger they might "aid in 
nreseirving the jewel of liberty in the family 

freedom." 

The committee of this House appointed to 
investigate the massacre of 18GG, at the head 
of which was the gentleman from Ohio, [Mr. 
IShellabarger,] always just and generoas, re- 
ported — 

"That it was the determined purpose of 
the mayor of the city of New Orleans to 
break up this convention (of 18C6) by armed 
force." * ****** 

"Soon after noon the usual alarm was given, 
such as was used when the Federal Army 
was investing this city, and then the com- 
bined police, htmded by olficers, and firemen 
with their companies, rushed with one will 
from different parts of the city toward the 
Mechanicb' Institute, and the work of butch- 
ery commenced." 

That " in the hall and the streets more 
than two hundred men were slain and 
wounded." That " not one of these men has 
teen punished, arrested, or complained of," 
but " were continued in offioe." 

Ihe present Governor of Louisiana was 
elected in the spring of 18G8, by a majority 
ori7',413. In November of the same year 
Seymour and Blair carried the State by a 
majority of 4G, 962. Just prior to the elec- 
tion, as reported by another congressional 
Committee, two thousand freedmen were 
killed and wounded in the State, by secret, 
armed bands of K. W. C. and the K. K. K. 
As an illustration of how this came about, 
the committee reported that in the parish of 
Caddo, where, in April, there were 1,242 He- 
publican votes, but one was given for Grant, 
and the freedman who deposited that vote was 
murdered before he got to bed. 

Mr. Speaker, far be it from me to revive 
these cruel memories for any other purpose 
than to defend the noble pariy from wicked 
aspersions, and to hold the people manfully 
up, so far as my feeble power goes, to the per- 
petuating and consolidating of the existing 
wise and statesmanlike reconstruction of the 
South. If there be a sentiment in heraldry 
which touches my heart deeply, a sentiment 
of lofty manhood and statesmanship too, it, 
is "a han d that gives and a hear t that forgives. ' ' 
At the close of the war the South was willing 
to accept the situation in good faith. It has 
already passed into the solid stereotype of his- 
tory that it was the tampering of Andrew 
Johnson and the conjuring of the Damocra- 
tio party of the North, to the South, that 
direful spring of woes unnumbered, which 
evoked the devil of mischief which was run- 
niBg riot in the legislation and conduct of 
the Democratic party of Louisiana. 

I suppose, sir, I violate no confidence in 

repeating this sentiment of the last rebel 

oeneral who surrendered of the Union 

".AstH Mood shed in the English 

V dry when the Puritan 



and the Cavalier united to rebuild the brok- 
en fabric of England's greatness, so may the 
Union man and the confederate unite withrival 
zoal to rebuild the glory and maintain the per- 
petuity of the American Union." Sir, that 
sentiment, flowering at last, let us trr,'s'i-, 
throughout the South, is the result cf f.^ jjind 
but inexorable and firm policy of recOiigtruo- 
tion. Would that my voice could reach t(]he oar 
of every citizen of the liepublic, as I pk 
let well enough alone ; not to conjure an^ 
with a wand of affected tenderness, whicu 
may again evoke the slumbering devil of 
caste ; not to undo a work so nobly and 
wisely done, and " fly to evils that we know 
not of." 

One crime laid at the dcor of the Bepubli- 
can party of Louisiana, is the passaRO of cer- 
tain obnoxious laws giving to the Executive 
of the State great and almost despotic pow- 
ers. These laws were passed in good faifh, 
for the profection of the freedaien, and if 
honestly adminiistered no harm or cause of 
complaint would have arisen. But, sir, I 
grant they have not been honestly administ- 
ered, and the result has shown that the Ke- 
pubiicans of Louisiana isn flyicg from one 
danger fell into another. But, sir, danger- 
ous as thoso laws have proved to be, which 
party should bear the responsibility, the 
party which passed them, or the patty whose 
wicked persecutions, violence, and assassina- 
tions made them necessary ? Let the peo- 
ple judge. 

Under the registration law the Governor 
was directed, to appoint registrars in the sev- 
eral parishes of the State, who had control 
of the registration of voters, the holding of 
elections, and the counting of the votes. The 
State Ilepublican committee nominated re- 
istrars who were residents of the parishes, 
and no question is made but they were good 
men. The Governor beginning a new de- 
parture, it would seem, as early as 1870, re- 
fused to appoint these men, but appointed, 
among others, thirty-six registrars who were 
non-residents of the parishes, some of whom 
were non-residents of the State and some of 
whom were bad men. Some of these regis- 
trars fraudulently returned themselves, their 
clerks, or their intimate friends, as elected to 
the Legislature, who had never received any 
nomination, and in some cases were not 
known as candidates in the parishes whence 
returned. These frauds were most scandal- 
ous and notorious, well known to the Demo- 
cratic party of Louisiana, and were commit- 
ed sometimes in the interest of liepublican 
and sometimes in the interest of Democratic 
candidates. These fraudulently returned 
members were in moat cases unscrupulous 
adventurers and faithful adherents to the 
Governor. 

Now, sir, let this Houso and the country 
know the truth, which no man dare deny,that 
from the hour of this infamy there was a 
wide and impassable gulf and a deadly feud 
between the Governor and the Eepublican 
party, led by Marshal Packard and Governor 
Dunn, of which last the Democratic members 
of this committee say in their report : 

"In November, 1871, he died. He seems 
to have been justly esteemed by the citizens 
of the State irrespective of party, and his 
death was sincerely lamented. He was the 
political leader of the colored race in Louis- 
iana, and was unselfishly devoted to their 
prosperity and elevation. " 



Mortimer C.iir, wiio, on ilia vGar before, 
^ had repreeentecl one of tlig purishes of tbe 
;^ city of New Orlenus, aud v/as clearly provea 
*** before your oommitlea to be a man of bad 
"^cbaraotor, is mentioned in the report of tho 
^ Deniociatio members of tbe committee thus : 
"Mortimer Garr is the prince of tho venal 
ring ir, the house, and claims to represent a 
jmrip-h/in which be waa appointed registrar, 
*iu which he had never had a residence, and 
*^u which he has not S'.t hia foot since IS 70.' 
Before, or immediately npon the meeting 
of tho Legislature, the llepubUcaus de- 
termined upon au effort to unseat these vil- 
lains, and employed an attorney to prepare 
tho proofs end conduct tho contests. These 
frauds were committed in November, 1870. — 
Tho whole Btate was in commotion about 
them at once. Before tho Logislature met, 
on the 1st of January, the Goveraor, his 
friends, and tbe Dejaocratic psuty, entered 
into an infumous coaiitiou, by which the pat- 
ronage of sixteen parishes was given to the 
Democrats ; men charged to have been fraud- 
ulently retiirned were defended in their seats, 
by which the appointment of the committees 
of the Senate was taken out of the hnnds of 
Governor Dann, and by which was elected as 
speaker of tho house, receiving every Demo- 
cratic vote, a man known throughout the 
State as not honestly elected and not eligible, 
and therefore not entitled to even a seat in 
the housG-^thia branded scoundrel, Mojftiiuer 
Carr. 

Of course, sir, it followed, as Wiis doubtless 
understood, that one Abel, another inter- 
loper, not a resident cf the district v/hich he 
claimed to represent, and not entiiled to a 
seat himself, was made chairman of the House 
committee on elections. Tmis tbe good and 
true men in the Legislature, black and svhite, 
who were making an earnest and concerted 
effort to oiean :0ut the villains, were bound 
band and foot, and the unhappy fatate was 
handed over to the rule of such a coalition 1 

This, sir, was Democratic work. It is an 
old proverb that "a workman is known by 
his chips." Mr. Speaker, will the eyes of 
honest Democrats wink at such damning vil- 
lany as this, because it brought grist to the 
Democratic mill ? And will not an intelli- 
gent public stamp a3 a oriaie against troth 
and a crime against honor,any attempt to lay 
the consoqueuaoa of this infamous coalition 
at the door of the Eepublican party or of re- 
construction ? 

Before the eession of the Legialatnra of the 
the last winter the rogues had faHen out, be- 
cause, as alleged, the Uovernor did not "play 
fair," and tha popular conscience was too 
plainly against him, a controlling reason ap- 
pearing in the testimony of Judge Walker 
that the Governor after the death of Governor 
Dann would not consent to the election of a 
Democrat in his place, for the reason assign- 
ed by his more intimate friends, that it 
would render him more liable to impeach- 
oient. 

But, sir, unhappy as tho consequences 
have been to Louisiana of the election of un- 
tried men to office, it was far better for the 
Republican party, better for the State, and 
better for the nation than to have elected to 
places of trust old and tried and saintly citi- 
zsns, who would have followed the precedent 
of the last Democratic Legislature and rob- 
bed her people of the jewel of liberty. How 
guilty the poor freedmen of the State have 



been, let Mr. Eustis, a distinguished lawyer 
of New Orleans, and a member of the Demo- 
cratic State committee, testify : 

"Q The colored people, as a rule, have 
strong attacbmenta, have they not ? 

"yl. I believe they have. 

"(j^. They have a good deal moro altacl;i- 
moni for their old masters than they have for 
the new comer ? 

"^. I think they have now. 

*'Q. They have had all the while ? /^ 

".4. When you use the word attachment,^ 
think they have ; but they have suapeoted 
that their old masters, if given political 
powers, might deprive thorn of their political 
rights. 

''Q That suspicion is now passing away 
from the minds of the cjlored people ? 

"yl. I think ap. 

"<3. When cinfidoEco is once established, 
tbe intelligeEco aud brains of your State will 
control your political as in other States ? 

"J. Yes, sir, if tho will of the people is 
not defoated by the agency of the election 
and regi:;tT&tiou laws. 

"Q. And the only requisite to tbe most 
intelligent men of jour S(ate haviJ3{< the 
suffrages of the negvoos is the one conditioa 
that they shall play fair %\ ith them ? 

"J.. Or remove the saspicion that they 
will not." 

Aud as to the gnilt of the Republican party 
of tbe nation or of the State, or the national 
Administration, for the condition of things, I 
C'lll Mr. Moncure, a Democratic member of 
tb© Lovjislaturo, of whom the Democratic 
members of the committee in their report tay: 

"There is one member of the H:u^o who 
deserves honorable exception from the gt;]u- 
eral condemnation so richly won by the 
Legislature. J. C. Moncare, esq., represei;- 
taUve from the parish of Caddo, was exami- 
ned before the ojmmittee, and gave an im- 
partial and intelligent ^tatemeut of tbe sitaa- 
tion from his stand-point. lie has been 
faithful among the faithless, and heillnstia*:ea 
the truth that 'virtue is its own rcwa,rd,' iu 
the re&p-sct and esteem in which he is held 
by the honest people of Louisiana, irrespt c- 
tive of party. ' 

This gentleman testifies : 
"Q. Do you mean to say that the corrnpt 
condition of the State Lagislaiuve is due to 
the enfranchisement of the c >lored people, 
or to the mal-adminiht ration of the present 
Executive ? 

^'A. I am very much obliged to you for 
asking the qaostion. It is vaRtly more due 
to the State administration — to the State 
government, and the character of the men 
who administer it, and the character of the 
men who are controlling spirits in fell its 
branches I do not consider it chargeable to 
the enfranchisement of the black^i at all." 

"Q. Were not Governor Dnnn, and with 
him the blacks of the Slate, first in the field 
or early in the field for the repeal of these 
laws of which you complain ? 

'■^A. They were early in the field ; a large 
number of Governor Dunn's friends were 
earnest in their professions of their desire to 
repeal these bills last winter. 

"Q. Let me ask you whether the Republi- 
can party of this State — the great mass of the 
Republican party— are with the reformers, oy 
with the other side ? "^ 

"A I am very decidedlyx-^- ' 



that the great mass of the Republican party 
of Louisiana desire these reforms. I am 
decidedly of the conviction, farther, that 
these reforms are opposed only by persons 
■who have nothing to expect from the great 
mass of the people of the State by fair means. 

" Q. Then, in yonrjudgment, except for 
unprecedented resistance on the part of the 
State Executive and his friends, these re- 
forms would have been brought about sum- 
luarily in the ordinary way ? 

"J.. I think so ; if Governor Warmoth had 
abstained from interference, these reforms 
would hava been brought about easily, quiet- 
ly, and without difficulty. 

"Q. Then the great mass of the Republican 
party of this State are with what is called the 
cnstom-honse party ? 

*'.4. Well, if you like to call them so ; I 
think the majority of the real Republican 
party of this State are with Governor Dunn's 
party. 

"Q Do you know of any interference of 
CoUtfctor Casey, collector, in State politics 
which is reprehensible ? 

"4. None whatever, nor any other United 
States officer." 

And yet sir, the Democratic members of 
this committee go back upon this high-toned 
witness for a fling at the President of the 
United States. Alas ! alas ! sir, what a pile 
of Democratic teeth have been broken on that 
file. 

Mr. Eustis farther testifies : 

"Q. What do you say about the honest 
sentiment in the iiepublioan party ; does it 
sustain the Governor in his course ; does it 
sustain these laws ? 

*'A. Well, sir, the Republican party,in my 
opinion, is as sorry that these powers have 
been confided to the Governor as the Demo- 
crats are. For the first time in my political 
career I have been thrown in contact with 
colored politicians, and I find them exceed- 
ingly bitter upon this question. They are 
satisfied, I think, that their race can have no 
representation in the government of Louis- 
iana undsr these laws, because there will 
not be a fair election. I will further state 
that saveral of them have expressed it to me. 
And one reason why I believe that this tem- 
porary coalition would result in something 
positive was, that several of the colored politi- 
cians have told me they considered these laws 
so oppressive to the people of Louisiana — 
the white people — that they were anxious to 
have these laws modified and put upon a fair 
basis, because they feared that if the white 
people got control of this Slate Ihey would 
retaliate upon the colored people the injustice 
they h&d suffered under these laws. I be- 
lieve that is tho general opinion of honest 
colored men. 

"Q. What is the general feeling between 
the old white residents and the colored 
people ? 

"J.. Well, sir, in 1868 the question came 
up. I was then a member of tho committee 
as to what we should do with regard to the 
negro voters, and I think that the leaders of 
the Democratic party took this view : tha'< if 
we tried to influence the negroes, in the first 
place, we could not do it ; for if we attempt- 
ed tg do so we ware under such disadvantages 
with regard to emancipation, and so strong 
suspicion would be created in their minds 
against us, that the general disposition and 
'^'"^ eeneral course of action resolved npon 



was to allow the negroes to do just as they 
liked, and, even if they wished it, to assist 
them." 

Mr. Speaker, in the hue and cry sought to 
be raised throughout the country against Re- 
publican reconstruction and the subjugation 
of the proud white men of the South to negro 
domination, this House and the country ought 
to heed the testimony of the Democratic 
members of this committee, who state it* their 
report : 

" The colored members of the Legislature 
are regarded as less dishonest than the whites." 

Mr. Monoure also testifies : 

"• Q- Who is the State Senator that repre- 
sents your own district ? 

" A. Senator Antoine. 

*' Q. I hold in my hand a paper called the 
Daily Southwestern. Is that a Democratic 
paper published in your district ? 

" A. Yes, sir ; at Bhreveport. 

" Q. It contains this article : 

" Antoine. — A private letter has been re- 
ceived here from Senator Antoine, dated Bay 
St. Louis, January 15, in which the following 
passage occurs : 

"'I am siiffering and making pecuniary 
sactiftces for the interest of my constituents 
and the Reform Republicans of the State 
against an unscrupulous and corrupt Gov- 
ernor. Say to the people that I will not sell 
their rights for a mess of pottage, and that 
there is no money that Governor Warmouth 
could give me that would cause me to betray 
the confidence they have placed in me as 
their representative.' 

"The integrity of this colored Senator, in 
remaining faithful to the party of Reform, is 
in striking oontradt with some high-stning 
Democrats that we wot of. Antoine has placed 
a feather in his cap which the people here 
will be apt to appreciate. 

" A. Every word of which I most earnestly 
and cordially indorse." 

Mr. Sinnott testified : 

' ' Q. You are not much of a Radical your- 
self ? 

"J.. Not by a long ways. Never was and 
never will be. 

" Q. You are a Democrat, sound to the 
core ? 

• ' A. Yes, in the time of it, while it existed, 
I was an active Democrat. 

" Q. Do you mean to say that Democracy 
is played out ? 

"-4. To answer that question, I will tell 
you, that in my judgment, all tho principles 
which we formerly adhered to as sacredly as 
v/e did to our God, are dead. 

" Q. That is, you have no more confidence 
in the Northern Demoorate ? 

" yl. Yes; I have when I know them, but I 
think that the princiijles of politics, when you 
talk of them, are all dead. 

" Q You organized a large number of col- 
ored Democratic clubs in this city, did you 
not? 

*' -4. Yes, sir ; I helped to organize one. 

" Q. Tell me if they played out. 

" A. They were the biggest set of rascsls I 
ever saw. We got them together, and fed 
them, and clothed them, and shod them. 

" Q, Tell me how much they cost you ? 

" -4. It is inc<»lculable ; I cannot tell. 

" Q. How many clubs were there ? 

".d. I do not know; we had one, and that 
was enough for me. 

"Q. How many members did you have in it? 



"A. We must have had a hundred, almost. 

" Q. Did you clothe them? 

'^ A. Yes; clothed them, and fed them, 
and shod them ; gave them spirits once or 
twice a week. 

" Q. Then they went and voted the Repub- 
lican ticket ? 

" A. I expect every one did." 

One witness testified that there was not 
money enough in Louisiana ta buy a colored 
man's " vote on a political question." 

Governor Wiirmoth testified : 

"There were a good many measures intro- 
^duced by the lobby outside ; for instance, 
/ there was a bill introduced in 18G9 providing 
for the funding of seven millions and a half 
of State bonds, ami accrued interest, that were 
issued by the rebel State goverment ; they 
were held by the banks here in the city, and 
they desired to have a bill passed through 
the Legislature taking up these bonds and is- 
suing new State bonds, and the contract was 
made, I believe, between those bank presi- 
dents and a certain gentleman, and it was to 
be engineered throngh'iu someway. I will give 
you the contract if you woiald like to see it. 

"Q. How did it get into your possession ? 

"A. I got a copy of it. 

"Q. Is that the original? 

"A. It is a copy of the original and Is as 
follows : 

"Thid agreement, made and entered into 
this 22d day of April, 180!), Emile H. Eeynes 
and Avegno & Wliioz, of this city of New Or- 
leans, of the first part, and the several 
banks hereinafter named, represented by 
their respective presidents, duly authorized 
by their boards of directors, of the second 
part, witnesseth : 

"Whereas the said banks are holders and 
owners of certain bonds issued by the State 
of Louisiana, under and by virtue of an act 
of the Legislature thereof, approved the 2:5rd 
day of January, 1802, entitled, 'An act to 
raise money for the State treasury, ' &c. ; and 
whereas the said Emile H. Reyuea and Aveg- 
no & Willoz, parties of the first part, are de- 
sirous and willing to undertake to have the 
validity of said bonds admitted by the State, 
to or obtain compensation for the same : 

Now, therefore,it is hereby stipulated,cove- 
nanted,and agreed, by and between said part 
ies of the first part and second part as 
follows, to wit: the said E. H. Key- 
nes and Avegno & Willoz hereby agree 
and bind themselves to use all their 
influence and exertions, and to make 
every effort either to obtain some compensa- 
tion for the said bonds, or to procure some 
rdlief to the parties of the second part, hold- 
ers and owners of said bonds. They further 
bind themselves to miike all necessary advan- 
ces of money, and to bear jjersonally and 
alone all the costs, expanses, and outlays of 
money that may be necessary to reach the 
proposed end. 

"In case the said Emile H. Reynea and 
Avegno & Willoz should succeed in their en- 
deavors, either to have the validity of said 
bonds admitted or to obtain some comi^ensa- 
tion for the same, by the issue of new bonds 
by the State in lieu of the old ones, then and 
in that case, the said parties ot the second 
part hereby agree and bind themselves to 
transfer and turn over in fall ownership to the 
parties of the first part twenty-five per cent,, 
or one fourth of the whole number of the said 
bonds which they now hold, in full compensa- 



tion for their services in the premises. 

"In case any of the bank parties to this 
agreement should not have their bonds in 
their possession by reason of having surren- 
dered the same by error to the United States 
authorities during the war, but hold the re- 
ceipts of said authorities for the same, the said 
banks agree and bind themselves to contribute 
in the same manner their p7'o rata out of any 
new bonds or compensation they may receive 
from the State of Louisiana, in lieu of the old 
bonds or of the receipts of the United States 
authorities for the bonds surrendered by 
them. 

"It i3 Loroby acknowledged and agreed that the 
amount of bonds held by tlie said banks and individ- 
uals respectively Is as follows, to wit : 

Tlie Louisiana State Bank $537,248 

Tho Canal Hank. 700*000 

Tho Bank of Louieiana „... 70o'ooo 

The Citizens' Eiuk 743*000 

The Mechanicij' and Traders' Bank .312*500 

The Union Bank 100000 

The Bank of New Orleans '.'.'.' 145 OOO 

The Merchants' Bank T, lOOOOO 

The Creaceut Oity Bank '.'.'. 20,'coO 

Making a total of $3,404,343 

"It is expressly understood between all parties that 
this agreement and c ntract shall not extend beyond 
the last day of the next session of tlie Legislature of 
the Siato, at which time if Messrs. Beynes and Aveg- 
no & ^^'illoz have not succeeded in obtaining the ex- 
pected redress from the State by the enactment of 
the necessary laws and acts of the Legislature, then 
and in thit case the agreement shall y^«o facto be null 
and void. 

" Thus done on duplicate, in the olty of New 
Orleans, this 22d day of April, 18e9. 

JULES A. BLANO, 
President I^ouiniana State Bank 
GEOKGE JONAS, 
President Canal and Bank Company 
E. E. WILLOZ, 
P. H. MORGAN, 
J. F. IKWIN. 

Commissioners. 
SAM BELL. 

President Union Bank, 
E. H. SUMMERS, 
President Crescent City Bank, 
E, H. KEYNES, 
Witness : AVEGNO & WILLOZ. 

KOBT. Keeh, 
A, Oassard." 

It is just worthy of mention that this mild 
job did not win success. Wonld the people 
trast an ass laden with that much gold in tne 
Legislatures of some unreconstructed States? 

Mr. Speaker, it is a hopeful augury for the 
country that these despised men cannot be 
driven by Ku Klux violence and organized 
assassination, nor wheedled by Democratio 
caresses into the support of candidates for 
office "who do not play fair with them, or 

remove the snspicion that they will not." 

Democratic arts may mislead the white man ; 
so far they have ingloriously failed to wool 
the negro. 

Another grievous crime of the Administra- 
tion against the Democratic party, I suppose, 
is that marshal Packard, a judicious and effi- 
cient officer, a man with no stain of reproach, 
is kept in office after holding a Republican 
convention in the custom house protected by 
United States troops. 

Mr. Speaker, I do not regret that the greafc 
Democratic party of the nation have taken so 
lively an interost in the family troubles of 
the Eepublican party. I remember the al- 
manac used to give the rules of the "Black 
Art." To the first question, "How to raise 
the devil" was given the answer "Interfere 
between a man and his wife." How trne is 
the iprinciple taught, is quite apparent. You 
now see the once compact and harmonions 
Democracy advertised "to let." You see tb- 



6 

nnlionsed Democracy, rent with fends, the 
one faction clinging to their Bourbon folly 
the other clamoring for a king who had fed 
them with strychnine for thirty years. la 
their mortal pain they call for more. They 
believe in curing the bite of a dog with a hair 
from hig tail, I suppose upon the homeopath- 
ic prmciple, sif/iUia similibus curantur. 

Mr. Speaker, I should like to have our 
Democratic friends pest the book?, and toll 
us what have been the net profits in their ex- 
perience of meddling with other people's af- 
fairs. Have these people ever heard of the 
man who is said to have made money by 
minding his own business ? 

But, sir, whether it be any business of Dem- 
ocrats or not; Kepublicans ought to know 
this : the evidence is overwhelming that but 
for the holding of the convention of August 
last in the court-room at the custom-house, 
and the presence of the United States troops, 
there would have been a frightful butchery, 
more appalling than the massacre of 186G iu 
the Mechanics' Institute. About the custom- 
house, as it was, were massed some three 
hundred armed ijolicemen and roughs, com- 
prising many of the same men who, in uni- 
form and in platoons, led iu the massacre 
of 18GG, Among them, as a specimen brick, 
was Lucien Adams, who, in the index of the 
report of the congressional committiee which 
investigated the riot of 18GG, is named thus: 

"Adams Lucien : secret police ; watches 
house of Judge Howell, (Howell, 566 ;) head- 
ed band of police, (Oampanell 78i-8lG;) is a 
Thug, (Montien, 1138;) Balestier asked by, if 
he had killed anybody that day, (Balestier, 
2853, 2854;) gave orders to the police to move 
at bell tap; said he was to shoot yankees and 
negroes, {idem, 3010, 3030;)insults]to Union 
soldiers, (Waters, 5103;) known to have com- 
mitted murder on day of the riot, (Shelly, 
6824;) a noted Thug, (Burke, 6999,") &o. 

The Governor testifies that he had appoint- 
ed this man to an office worth fi ve or six thou- 
sand dollars per year. Some other witness 
testifies that the oflice is worth ten to twelve 
thousand dollars. It is reasonable to suppose 
that the Governor was a shining light at Cin- 
cinnati, and is an advocate of civil service re- 
form. 

The presidents of the ward clubs where 
violence and bloodshed had been frequent in 
the election of delegates, the mayor of the 
city, and leading citizens of both parties, ap- 
pealed to Mr. Packard to protect the conven- 
tion and the city by the eiiective presence of 
troops. The Democratic editor of the New 
Orleans Times testified : 

"Q. Do you know the condition of this city 
on the evening prior to the August Republi- 
can convention hero ? 

"■A. I left the city on the 7th or 8tb; there 
was great excitement. 

"Q- Did you know whether affairs were 
threatening, and there was imminent danger 
of a riot ? 

"^, Yes, sir; there was great excitement. 
The police seemed to be very much agitated, 
and were running from point to point. There 
was a very fiery feeling." 

A deposition of Edwin L. Jewel, editor of 
the Commercial Bulletin, and a member of 
the State Democratic central committee, 
states : 

"It was generally known that all of the 

'^nblio halls in the city had been secured by 

—nor or hia friends, with a view of 

■^'^ts to assemble in the Me- 



*«i they 
•asist 
chanios' Institute, a building rented by me 
Governor for a State-house and the executive 
office. This place, it was believed, v/onld be 
filled by metropolitan police, under the con- 
trol of the Governor, and there woiUd have 
been no hesitation, 1 believe, to invoke their 
forcible inteiference had there been a major- 
ity of delegates opposed to his Exceilenoy. 
So satibfiod was I of this fact that I took oc- 
casion to t&U Mr. Packard, the president of 
the Republican central committee, that if he 
called the convention at any place in the city""- 
outside of the custom-house, Warmoth would 
surely take violent possession of it and con- 
trol its deliberations. 

" This ho was prevented from doing only 
by the presence of the Federal troops on the 
day of the convention, and by their timely 
appearance on that occasion I believe the 
Republican party of this State was saved 
from annihilation, as they prevented a colli- 
sion which otherwise was inevitable between 
the adherents of Governor Warmoth and the 
Opposition. And had any diftturbanoe oc- 
curred between those two factions, whether in 
the cusiom-house or elsewhere, it would have 
been tho signal for a general xiot, which would 
have never terminated until the prominent 
leaders of both factions had been swept 
away, and the Republican party left without 
a leader and tho State without an Executive. 

" The wrongs and oppressions of the Re- 
publican party had weighed so heavily upon 
the people, and had so prostrated the com- 
mercial and iudastrial pursuits of the city 
that a large class of the commtmity is with- 
out occupation or means of livelihood, and 
their condition is desperate. Whether justly 
or Hot, they hold tho Republican party re- 
sponsible for their miseries ; and while, as a 
general rule, our people are the most orderly, 
peaceable, and long-enduring, still there is 
an element that cannot be influenced by rea- 
son, but is governed by passion and pre- 
judice, and by their real or imaginary grievan- 
ces. These people cannot be controlled 
when an opportunity presents itself to them 
for removing the cause of their misfortunes. 
And such an event as a row between the two 
factions of the party they oppose, I believe 
would have been eagerly seized upon and 
profitably used. Under these circumstances 
the responsibility of such a riot would haye 
been entirely with the Repablican party, 
while those who played the most destructive 
part would have been held blameless be- 
cause unknown, and perhaps unseen in the 
terrible tragedy that was beiag enacted. Each 
faction would have charged the other with 
the work of destruction, while in reality they 
were both beicg annihilated byan unsuspected 
hand. The presence of the Federal troops 
then on the day of the convention was a sore 
dissapointmont to the turbulently inclined as 
on the day when the people had resolved to 
drive out Governor Warmoth with his police 
and revolutionary Legislature from the State- 
house. It was the most positive assurance 
that Governor Warmoth would not be per- 
mitted to inaugurate a disturbance, and the 
convention would be peaceably convened 
and a conflict of the factions avoided. And 
without this conflict the opportunity for a 
triangular fight vanished. Thus the Re- 
publican party with all of its leaders in this 
city was saved, 

"And here I would state that the use of 
Federal troops on occasions of political ex- 
citement is not without precedent in thin 



state. DuriDg the admiiiisf ration of Presi- 
dent Bacbanan, Mr. F. H. Hatch was Collect- 
tor of the port, and the headquarters of the 
Democratic party was the onstom-houpe. At 
the election for mayor of this city in 1858 a 
fierce and bitter campaign had been rpgicg 
between the Democratic and Know-Nothing 
parties. Political excitement was very great 
Eud serious disturbances anticipated. Mr. 
^'- »'i:h, fearine; an attack on the cnstom-honso 
J the Know-Nothings, from the fact of it be- 
ing Democratic headquarters, telegraphed 
hia apprehensions to Washington and asked 
for authority to send for troops. Two com- 
panies of infantry, at that time stationed at 
the barracks at Baton Konge, were placed at 
his disposal, and by his orders were brought 
to this city and stacked their arms in the cus~ 
iom-honse and remained there until after the 
election. No disturbance occurred and the 
troops returned to their quarters. " 

Governor Dunn, in his letter to Mr. Gree- 
ley, said: 

"The action of the committee was not only 
sanctioned by the usages of party organiza- 
tion, but moderate and necessary, and the 
conduct of the Federal authorities was dis- 
creet and wise, not only authorized, but de- 
manded by existing laws, and had they done 
less they would huvs failed in their duty. Ay, 
more, the persistent and repeated outrages 
of his Excellency and his supporters, showing 
the presence of organized assaults upon the 
lights of citizens as guarantied by the Con- 
stitution and the laws made thereunder, but 
the connivance of the police with the evil- 
minded persons perpetrating these outrages 
clearly called for and would have justified the 
interference, for our protection, of the Presi- 
dent, under the third section of the en- 
forcement bill of April 20, 1871. All the 
material facts herein recited, and more, are 
not only confirmed by the conduct of his Ex- 
cellency in withdrawing from their beats and 
massing in the neighborhood of the custom- 
house, hundreds of the metropoliton police, 
and in an unavailing efi'ort to call out the 
militia for the same nefarious purpose, but by 
affidavits of reliable and respectable men, who 
were nersonally cognizant of the facts alleged. " 

=K * * * * 

"It is alleged or assumed by the afore- 
mentioned journals that the United States 
court-room was selected as the place of meet- 
ing as an excuse to obtain and use the Fed- 
eral troops against the faction of Governor 
Warmoth. It is further alleged or assumed 
that Governor Warmoth was, with his friends, 
refused admittance to the room in which the 
convention was to be held after he had 
made aa effort to obtain entrance at the time 
unanimously agreed upon by the committee, 
including his own friends among them, to 
wit, 11:30 A. M. 

"Furthermore, it is alleged that the troops 
interfered to intimidate the delegates, and 
finally drove the Governor and his followers 
from the convention. Each one of these alle- 
gationa;and assumptions is nnequivocally and 



utterances were groundless fabrications, and 
unworthy of credit." 

How pitiable is the insane partisan fury 
which arraigns the President for keeping in 
olEce a judicious and faithful man who saved 
both the Warmoth and anti- Warmoth leaders 
from assassintion, and the party from threat- 
ened annihilation proved by Buch credible 
testimony as this. 

Fearlessly, Mr. Speaker, does a great 
party, proud of its standard-bearer, wait for 
the verdict of the people upon this charge. 
All that he has ever said upon the subject 
Judge Dibble disoloees : 

"<2. Did the President justify the conduct 
of the custom-house officials in bringing 
armed soldiers into the building ? 

'•'■A. He made use of a very curious phase 
in regard to that. He wanted to know what 
objections we had to the troops if we did not 
intend to do any harm." 

V/ith him alone, among men, is the pro- 
verb reversed : "It is silence that is silver, 
and speech that is golden." 

A mnjority of this committee have reported 
that "there is no trace of interference by the 
Administratlbn at Washington" with the local 
politics of the State, and the minority have 
not dared assert the contrary. If the use 
made of the cutter Wilderness was a viola- 
lian of u Treasury order that order was prob- 
ably not known to the parties in control of 
the cutter, and was not known to your com- 
mittee, ev?n, until attention was recently 
called to it in the public prints. Congression- 
al committees have uniformly ridden upon 
the cutter. The same thing has been done 
from time immemorial. In the last Demo- 
cratic administration a Democratic deleg .- 
tion went from New York to Ctiarleston on 
the cutter Harriet Lane. 

The cutter did not go off her beat, and 
was at all times within call, and the absent 
Senators were hourly expected. This use of 
the cutter, however, was reprehensible, 
though it connot be justly condemned as a 
crime demanding exemplary punishment — 
The Democratic State central committee aid- 
ed, abetted, and instigated the act. Judge 
Ogden, its chairman, afterward visiting and 
comforting the exiled Senators at Bay St. 
Louis. And, Mr. Speaker, even more than 
the telegram of the Democratic central com- 
mittee asking the President to declare martial 
law, does the use of the cutter, show the 
reconstruction of the Louisiana Democracy. 
For five days and nights, of Democrats and 
ilepublicans, white and black, there were 
fifteen Senators aboard the cutter, which 
had but six berths. Yon see, Mr. Speaker, that 
makes a sum in the rule of three. 

Not a job has passed the Legislature that 
has not been pressed by leading and influen- 
tial Democrats. The State indebtedness has 
been increased mainly by six acts of the Leg- 
islature. One of them had eight negative 
votes in the Senate, and nine in the House ; 
five were passed by unanimous vote in one 
house or the other ; two, incurring the largest 




sold for thirty-eight per cent more than in 
the last Democratic State administration. 

Let the odium, sir, whatever it be, of car- 
pet-bag adventures be divided between the 
parties on the square. Mr. Joubert testified: 

"Q. Yon do not mean to say that he (Col- 
lector Casey) was charged with scoundrelism 
and robbing the people ? 

"A. No, Bir ; ho was always regarded as an 
honest man. 

"Q. Before the Republicans were in power 
was Mr. Crecey a supervisor of internal reve- 
nue here ? 

"A. Yes. sir. 
"Q. Was he a carpet-bagger fromWashington? 

"A. Yes, he was ; and as soon as he lost 
his office he went away. 

"Q. He was under the old Democratio 
regime ? 

*'A. He was under Johnson. 

"Q. Mr. Crecey himself was a Democrat, 
was he not ? 

"A. I think he was. 

*'Q. Was General Steadmer, of Ohio, a 
collector of internal revenue here^ ? 

"A. Yes ; he was a Democrat ; he was a 
carpet-bagger. 
, "Q. When he got out of office ho backed out'' 

"A. Yes ; he went away. 

"Q. Was Perry Fuller collector of the port 
then ? 

"A. Yea. 
*'Q. Was he a|oarpet-bagger andaDemocral? 

'A. Of course he w»s." 

Mr, Mann, a northern man, elected to 
Congress from Louisiana, was named as an- 
..-^"^ar "Democratic carpet-bagger." 

Mr. Speaker, the gratuitous ittsinuation 
that Gen. Grant had once dismissed the 
Governor from a military command "from 
questionable motives" was impertinent to 
any matter in the province of your commit- 
tee, and bears on its face more of shame than 
reason. Let gentlemen whose lofty states- 
manship is the gift of throwing vitriol go on 
in their noble work. They are the same 
men who maligned the martyred Lincoln, 
and now they lift their hats at the mention of 
his name. For their assaults upon the 
President they will live to be ashamed. A 
grateful country wears him in her heart of 
hearts ; when they assail his honor they 
touch the apple of the people's eye. That 
people will rebuke their sharaeless malig- 
nity and record their verdict that the liber- 
ties and the country he alone could save are 
still safest in his keeping. 

Mr. Speaker, the conscience of this coun- 
try does not require the testimony of wit- 
nesses that the Democratic party of Louisi- 
ana in their attempted betrayal of the freed- 
men have fathered every woe that has be- 
fallen the State. For two hundred years the 
colored men bore the punishment of your 
crimes against liberty, even as their proto- 
type in sufifering, Simon the Cyrenian, snr- 
named Niger, bore the cross after Christ. — 
Since emanoinatiori «<, Ur.t.^-,^ ^k > 
*t.^^®P°^"^''° °^ Edwin L, Jewel, editor of 
the Commercial Bulletin, and a member of 
the State Democratio central committee 
states : ' 

''It was generally known that all of the 
'^nbho halls m the city had been secured bv 

^^rsr^-m ^— UI_ t- :. ... . ■'_ 



8 014 •547-™^^^^ 

Not a few of the colored pojiuoitiua of 
Louisiana, by high character and pre-eminent 
ability, have fairly conqiisred the respect and 
reluctant defer on ci of the proudest aristocracy 
of the Uciou. With them have acted some 
of the best and purest men any State can 
boast of, and some other men who have 
bronghi reproach upon the party. Bat- |ir,i- 
there never was a civil war in history wlik®. 
did not bring in its train, in a gr£?ater or less^^ 
degree, similar evils with those which have 
afllicted the State of Louisiana. The very 
foundations of politicp.l sooiety were upheaved 
by reconBtruction. Painfully has she borne 
"in the furnace-blast the pangs of transform- 
ation," but hard upon the winter of her suf- 
fering comes the ejaly spring of now liberties 
and enduring peac^?, 

Mr. Speaker, can no man wring from Dem- 
ocratic lips the acknowledgement that the 
llepubjican party has done something for 
human freedom ? Could nat some rnistakes, 
some natural excesses be forgiven in consid-' 
eration of the fact that the St. Louis hotel in 
New Orleans no longer hums with tbie broker- 
age of human souls ? la this a thing for con- 
gratulation ? Sir, the Dred Scott decision, 
which logically grew from the Democratio 
germ, swept away American liberty in an 
hour. ITjere is tenfold more h'g»il and logic- 
al roeson — let the people be warned of it — 
for the upheaval of reconstruction and the 
late amendments of the Constitution. The 
Democratio party, professing no change of 
faith, adopt the strategy of a new departure. 
Bat, sir, the country is admonished. At tho 
battle of Bull Itun a rebel brigade got upon 
the llank of the Fiie Zouaves by carrying the 
Union colors. But once was enongh ; it was 
never done again. It is in vain that skilled 
strategy shall attempt tho cuckoo trick of 
laying Democratic eggs in the llepubiican 
nest. Honored leaders may betray us, but 
tho great party, invincible in war. invincible 
at the ballot-box, is alike invincible toitreason. 
Sir, let me call to mind the admonition 
given to our people many yesr.^, ago, that we 
should not put our trust in princes, because 
to a statesman in eight of the Presidency the 
White house is like the roiagnetio mountain 
in the siory of the Arabian Nights, which 
drew the bolts from the ship which came near 
it till its unbolted hull and decks and spars 
fell to pieces on the sea. The statesmen of 
to-day are not above the weakjuess by which 
tho great Webster and the angels fell. Trust- 
ed leaders with the presidential craze may be- 
tray the people, as every four years they do. 
Already do you see that one noble ship which 
has pioneered the discovery and the conquest 
of new continents of freedom has sailed, alas ! 
too near that fatal nioiintain. Its guns are 
silent, and its proud colors have kissed the 
brino ! 
Alas ! we thought we know 

"What master laid its keel, 

What workinau wrought its ribs of steel; 

Who made oaoh mnst- >vi'3u'i'i;.."ii\:fc^-aua me 

cuuventTon would be peaceably convened 
and a conflict of the factions avoided. And 
without this conflict the opportunity for a 
triangular fight vanished. Thug the Ke- 
pubhcan party with all of its leaders in this 
city was saved, 
"And here I would state that the 



ts to assemble in the Me- 1 citement js not without precedent in thi« 



iS 



\/ 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



014 544 725 2 f 



Hollinger Corp. 
pH8.5 



